India's L&T may spend about $1 bln in Mindtree takeover bid - report

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March 18 (Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Larsen & Toubro Ltd would spend up to 70 billion rupees ($1.02 billion) in a hostile bid to buy IT services company Mindtree Ltd, the Times of India (TOI) reported citing sources directly involved with the matter.

L&T will buy out Mindtree's largest shareholder VG Siddhartha and companies in which he is a promoter, following which an open offer will be sent to the public shareholders of Mindtree, according to the report here published on Monday.

The A M Naik-helmed L&T is buying Siddhartha’s nearly 21 percent stake for over 30 billion rupees, at 981 rupees a share, which will make it Mindtree’s largest shareholder. Following this, L&T will trigger an open offer for another 26 percent from public shareholders, the report said.

Siddhartha, who is a promoter of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd and Coffee Day Trading Ltd, holds a 3.33 percent stake in Mindtree as of December-end, BSE data showed. Coffee Day Enterprises and Coffee Day Trading carry a combined 17.08 percent stake in Mindtree.

Mindtree was not immediately available for a comment while L&T said they did not comment on market speculations.

L&T was down 0.7 percent, while Mindtree rose 1.2 percent as of 0606 GMT.